Building a Healthier State from the Child Up

Tag: Alcohol

As parents, caring adults and community leaders, we must create the conditions for healthy kids to thrive. This means recognizing and addressing the dangers children face when they live in unhealthy environments, reducing health-harming behaviors like smoking and substance use by children and around children, and building communities that make it easier for kids and families to make healthy choices about food and physical activity.

Unfortunately, Indiana comes in 35th for overall children’s health in the U.S. Recognizing this, a new statewide collaboration, the Alliance for a Healthier Indiana, is bringing together business and community leaders to address the health of our citizens. The Indiana Youth Institute is joining this important effort to support building a healthier state from the child up.

Growing up in an environment with trauma and abuse creates lasting negative effects on children’s health, including slowing a child’s social and cognitive growth, raising their likelihood for obesity, tobacco and drug use, and inflicting long term consequences to their health and life opportunities. By understanding the co-occurrence and impact of these Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)*, we are better able to create positive interventions and conditions for change.

If we can reduce child and adult smoking rates, we can have a significant effect on Hoosier health. Indiana ranks 41st in the nation for the percentage of smokers, and an estimated 95 percent of adult smokers start smoking before age 21. More than 4,100 Hoosiers under age 18 become new daily smokers each year. In 2017, nine percent of Indiana high school students smoked cigarettes in the past month, and 14.9 percent of Indiana high school students used electronic vapor products. This is especially concerning, as teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to subsequently take up cigarette smoking.

Governor Holcomb has challenged Indiana to lower its infant mortality rate, as Hoosier kids infants are 24 percent more likely to die before their first birthday than the national average. Smoking is a significant contributor to problems arising during pregnancy and in the child’s development and health. Almost 1 out of every 7 pregnant women in Indiana smokes during pregnancy, a rate that is 68 percent higher than the national average. Smoking while pregnant is associated with a higher risk of miscarriage, low birthweight, premature birth, some birth defects and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Our state’s struggle with opioid use disorder is also taking a tremendous toll on our babies and children. Newborns exposed to opioids in utero have a 60-80 percent likelihood of suffering from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, a condition which impacts the child’s long-term growth, behaviors, language abilities, cognitive development, and academic achievement. Last year, Indiana had one of the nation’s greatest percentage increases in the number of children being placed in foster care. The Indiana Department of Child Services reported a sizable increase in the number of substantiated cases of abuse or neglect, with over half of the removals due to parental substance abuse.

Parental overdoses have both an immediate as well as a cumulative impact on children in the home. Children double their likelihood of developing addictive disorders when they come from homes where one or more adults abuse alcohol or drugs. While we do not yet know precisely how many Indiana children are living with adults struggling with opioid use disorder, we do know that these children are suffering and that immediate interventions are needed.

The prevalence of substance use disorder has captured recent headlines, but Indiana’s struggle with obesity is a longstanding problem that we have yet to effectively address. Indiana is the 10th worst state for adult obesity rates, and 1 in 3 Indiana youth ages 10-17 are overweight or obese. According to Julie Burns, CEO of Jump IN for Healthy Kids, in central Indiana the obesity/overweight rate is 25 percent higher than the national average, and three times higher than the goal of 15 percent. Burns stresses the importance of focusing on young children, as habits around food and physical activity are developed by age 5.

Healthy kids grow up with greater chances to be healthy adults, and are more likely to become productive and successful citizens. Far too many Hoosier children face the issues caused by ACEs, smoking, opioid use, obesity and are lost due to infant mortality. We support and applaud the efforts of the Alliance for a Healthier Indiana. Local events to improve Hoosier health are taking place across the state, and we encourage everyone to find a way to contribute by going to www.healthierindiana.org. By collectively dedicating ourselves to these efforts, and by taking a multi-generational approach, we hope to increase the health and success of all Indiana residents.